


Witless Protection

by Serene_Quill



Category: Eureka
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-16
Updated: 2011-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-14 19:51:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serene_Quill/pseuds/Serene_Quill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Valentine fic for lj user painshadows who wanted: Jack/Nathan (pre-slash/first time) Jack is smarter than he lets on (at least in one scientific field). Stark finds out when Carter solves a problem Stark couldn't. Stark researches. Eyes are opened. Confrontations are had. Slashiness ensues... Post 304 AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Witless Protection

“Look, Zoë, you can stay with me, but nothing about our situation has changed,” Jack said, sitting down across from her. “We’re still under protection, still the Carters.”

“Wait, you seriously expect me to believe you’re gonna play the half wit in a town full of geniuses working on the latest scientific advances and no one’s gonna catch on? How’d you talk the FBI into that?” the teenager snorted, rolling her eyes. “Look, no offense, Dad, you’ve gotten really good at being Jack Carter, but you’re gonna last a week, most.”

“We’ll see,” Jack replied, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. “But I need to turn the AI back on before Fargo gets too suspicious. Any other questions?”

“Do I have to still play dumb?” she asked, rolling her eyes. “Cuz I don’t think I’ll last long in that school if I do.”

“Nah, just keep up the rebellion act,” Jack remarked dryly, and Zoë made a rude noise.

“Not an act,” she told him, stomping up the stairs. Jack sighed, opening a panel and bringing SARAH back online.

 **Present**

“You opened this fake black hole, and you didn’t think that the crazy slow down pockets around town might somehow be connected?” Jack asked, fingers gripping his temple in annoyance. “Tell me you know how to shut down your model black hole.”

“Carter, the black hole experiment is not responsible for the random pockets of decelerated time as I think you were so eloquently trying to say,” Nathan shot back. “It’s a miniature scale model, it’s not causing it.”

“Really, you sure it didn’t hit actual zero volume? And if it did, are you certain your little anti-proton shield is really holding all the time dilation effects in check?” Jack snapped, and Nathan blinked, looking surprised.

“What did you…”

“Look, Henry caught me up, and we all know what happened last time models got out of control, miniature sun, remember?” Jack deflected quickly, kicking himself for the near slip. Anything other than black holes, this damn experiment…

Nathan started checking the computer, looking out into his shielded lab, frowning. “Shit, zero volume, you were right, Carter,” he muttered, typing furiously.

“So shut it down,” Jack replied, clenching his teeth. It was his experiment, his write up, and here it was, right before his eyes. The shielding was a weak mockery of his design, along with half a dozen other protocols that were rushed and flawed. In fact, the only part Nathan had gotten right was the pure science elements; he’d shot the safety all to hell. He was at his wits end watching this, and Zoë had wisely stayed with Pilar three nights that week rather than face Jack’s anger. She’d been none too sympathetic either, reminding her dad that he should have expected it sooner or later. Jack had made a face and said it would have been less insulting if it had been anyone other than Stark, anything other than exactly his experiment.

“I can’t,” Nathan replied, shaking his head.

“Let me guess, jumped before you invented the parachute, as usual?” Jack remarked acerbically, folding his arms.

“Just let me think,” Nathan snapped, and Jack sighed, trying to think of a way to insert the only solution he could think of into the conversation. “I need to call London.”

“London?” Jack felt his heart rate pick up, and for once not because the scientist was hitting his libido hard.

“The original scientist who developed this experiment about six years ago supposedly is working there, Dr. Jacob Kessler,” Nathan said distractedly. “He had some theoretical ideas on shutting down the experiment, but never wrote them up. Vanished from the scientific community, probably recruited to the MI6.”

“Right,” Jack said, mouth suddenly dry. “Someone smarter than you, let’s call him, shut this thing down.”

“I think that’s your job description, isn’t it?” Nathan remarked acidly. “Tracking down someone? Look, I can add another layer of shielding, funnel some energy away, keep the effects to a minimum for now.”

“Fine, I’ll track down this Jacob Kastle,” Jack growled.

“Kessler,” Nathan corrected, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, Carter, how the hell do you keep thoughts in that head of yours anyway?”

“You’d be surprised,” Jack couldn’t help replying ironically as he strode up to the surface level. He pulled out his cell phone, hitting the first number in his speed dial. “Hey, Zo, I need you to meet me at the bunker. I need your acting skills.”

*-*

“You sure you’re not doing this just because you wanna get back at Stark?” Zoë asked, tweaking a few things in the display unit on the laptop camera facing her, then adjusted the one facing Jack. “I did hear that whole ‘stealing your research’ rant the other day.”

“Pockets of decelerated time,” Jack snapped with a crisp British accent.

“I think your accent’s actually stronger than it was five years ago, Dad,” Zoë remarked, frowning. “Is that supposed to happen?”

“Bugger that, Stark thinks I’ve been with MI6 anyway. Is it ready?” Jack asked, and Zoë nodded.

“No way to trace it to us,” she confirmed. “And the CGI images will respond to our facial movements. Sit,” she told him, peeling small silver stickers off a sheet. She carefully stuck them on Jack’s face.

“And just think, you made fun of me for hijacking this program from a film company,” Jack said, winking and watching the older man on the screen wink in time with him.

“I still think this is a little bit about getting to one up Stark,” Zoë replied and Jack began to carefully attach the silver dots to her face. She tapped the keys, pulling up a young Asian woman’s face. “I like this one, she’s pretty,” Zoë decided, and Jack chuckled.

“You’re having fun with this too,” Jack observed, rather than admit he was enjoying the fact that for once, he got to be himself around Nathan and get the upper hand at the same time.

“Should I try to be British as well?” Zoë asked, imitating his accent, and Jack blinked, impressed.

“Whoa, not bad,” he told her, grinning. “All right, go for it.”

Zoë finished typing in a few commands. “Calling Stark’s office now,” she said, assuming a very professional demeanor.

“Dr. Stark’s office.” Fargo’s face filled Zoë’s screen.

“I have Dr. Jacob Kessler, returning a call from Nathan Stark,” she said crisply, and Fargo nodded.

“Of course, I’ll put you through to his lab, one moment,” Fargo replied, and Zoë looked over at Jack a little smugly, pleased to have fooled Stark’s assistant.

The video screen came back up, with Nathan settling in front of it. “This is Dr. Stark,” he said, and Zoë smiled thinly.

“Of course, sir, one moment while I connect you to Dr. Kessler,” she replied, a little note of condescension in her voice. Jack hid a grin, turning slightly away from the camera as his laptop activated, allowing him to see Nathan.

“Ah, Dr. Stark,” he said, tugging off a pair of glasses as he turned to face the screen. “I understand from your sheriff you’ve tried to run my old black hole experiment. How’s that going?”

“Not well,” Stark admitted, looking like he had swallowed a rather bitter pill. “The project reached zero velocity too quickly and is producing pockets of time anomalies.”

“Pardon, but you said time anomalies?” Jack sat forward, ignoring Zoë rolling her eyes, knowing he was enjoying this. “The experiment had clear protocols for prevention of such a side effect. Have they been circumvented?”

“Some short cuts were taken,” Nathan admitted, and Jack had to control his smirk at how ill at ease the scientist looked. “Two anti-proton fields have…”

“Two? How do you expect that to hold all the time dilation effects in check?” Jack burst out, glad to be allowed to rant. “Good god, next you’ll be telling me you didn’t build in an event horizon collapse trigger either.”

“I’m afraid not,” Nathan sighed. “Look, Dr. Kessler, we need to shut this down.”

“Yes, I got that from the gentleman who contacted me initially, your sheriff, I believe,” Jack drawled. “Remind me to send him something nice to apologize. I was quite certain he had to be overreacting, but it seems I underestimated the arrogance of American scientists.”

Zoë was now covering her mouth, shaking in silent laughter. “Then again, as an American, you probably have the only solution at your fingertips,” Jack continued mercilessly. “Overload of energy, which naturally has to be massive on a most unnatural scale. Detonate a nuclear weapon at the event horizon, if you have a secure enough facility to do so.” Which Jack knew GD did.

“Is there a way I can convince you to come to Eureka, set this experiment up properly after we detonate this one?” Nathan asked suddenly, surprising Jack.

“Stark, I left science a long time ago because of scientists who cut corners and got people killed as a result,” Jack said, voice flattening, but he just managed to hold onto his natural accent. This was getting uncomfortably close to the truth for him. “I bailed you out because you abused my research, but don’t make the mistake of thinking I want to see you succeed at this. Please have your rather more competent sheriff update me if you manage to clean up this mess, provided he doesn’t arrest you for reckless endangerment first.”

“Understood,” Nathan replied shortly.

Jack disconnected the feed just before Zoë burst out laughing, sending Jack along with her. “Dad, that was amazing,” she gasped between laughs. “You’ve wanted to slam Stark that way for years!”

“That was fun,” Jack said, catching himself when he heard his voice. “Damn it, I’m going to have to really pay attention for a while,” he mused, correcting his accent.

“Make sure you don’t slip in front of Stark,” Zoë remarked, rolling her eyes. “He’d be so pissed if he knew what you’d just done.” She started peeling stickers off her face, setting them back on their card, and Jack did the same. “So what are you going to send yourself from London?” she asked, looking hopeful.

“Some Pimms for me, and some Cadbury mint chips bars for you,” he replied, and she jumped up, hugging him enthusiastically.

*-*

“All set to nuke this thing?” Jack asked sarcastically, looking to the screen where the video feed of the bomb being loaded into Section 14 played. “Only you would create a problem so big we have to use nukes to solve it,” he couldn’t resist adding, and Fargo flinched at the glare Nathan gave Jack.

“You’re only here because somehow a scientist preferred you to me,” Nathan growled, and Jack grinned.

“Yeah, had some choice words to say about you,” Jack remarked cockily. “What’d you do, steal his girl?”

“Enough, Carter,” Nathan snapped, coming up into Jack’s personal space, too close, and Jack’s breath caught. He tapped down the other irksome feelings he had for Nathan, trying to reawaken his anger, but Nathan was too close, Jack able to feel the warmth of the scientist’s body. “You want to have a go at me later, fine, but I have work to do,” Nathan said, visibly calming himself.

“Fine,” Jack agreed, starting to turn away when Nathan’s hand gripped his shoulder tightly, reaching up and touching Jack’s jaw with an odd look. Jack’s breathing suddenly grew very shallow. “Stark, what…?”

“You have something…” Nathan started, then quickly ripped one of the small silver stickers off the corner of Jack’s jaw, where he’d missed it earlier. “What is this?” he asked, examining it.

“Ahh, Zoë’s doing some project, they’re all over the house,” Jack lied, shrugging.

Nathan continued to look at him oddly, then sighed, turning back to watch the final detonation sequence, his shoulders slumping slightly as the project vaporized. “Damn. I knew I shouldn’t have let Miller cut those corners in favor of his anti-proton shielding prototype.”

Jack blinked, surprised. “I thought…” he started, cutting himself off suddenly, knowing he’d reveal too much if he allowed himself to continue.

“I’m still responsible for what happened,” Nathan replied, suddenly looking very vulnerable and tired. “I got excited about the possibility of seeing this through, finishing Dr. Kessler’s work. I got arrogant, just like he said.”

“You should have told Kessler,” Jack observed, feeling pretty low suddenly. “He might have understood, been willing to help more.”

“Sure, Carter,” Nathan replied, rolling his eyes. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

He watched Nathan leave, looking blankly at Fargo. “He’s been trying for a couple years to push through Kessler’s project, thought it was brilliant,” the younger man explained. “And Dr. Stark rarely goes to bat for unfinished research, so he must really respect this guy.”

“Yeah,” Jack replied, sighing. “I need to get back to the station.”

*-*

Nathan was surprised a few mornings later to see a personal letter addressed to him sitting on his lab desk. He slit it open, frowning at the too familiar handwriting.

“ _Dr. Stark—_

 _I apologize for being short with you over the phone. Sheriff Carter explained your work to me more thoroughly, and I appreciate your efforts to continue my work. Please feel free to email me at the enclosed address below should you require further assistance._

 _Yours,  
Jacob Kessler_”

Nathan stared in disbelief, rereading it. “Fargo, tell Sheriff Carter I want to see him up here when he has a moment today,” Nathan told his assistant as he headed back up to his office. “And get me anything you can find on Kessler.”

“Got it,” Fargo replied, following behind him.

Once in his office, Nathan opened his desk, looking at the silver sticker he’d pulled off the sheriff a couple days earlier. He set it on his desk, then scanned the note into his computer, and next pulled up a report Jack had filed with him, sticking both into a program. Finally, he opened the security footage from his lab and the video logs of his conversation with Kessler, his mind ticking oddly.

“It can’t be possible,” Nathan muttered, starting with the video. Carter had made a comment about ‘holding the time dilation effects in check’ as had Kessler, and though the accents were radically different, the voices sounded similar.

The computer beeped, returning the comparison of the two signatures. The ‘Jac’ matched, as did the ‘er’ at the end of each name. He blinked, sighing as he started receiving more confirmation of his hypothesis, but Nathan couldn’t believe Jack would have been hiding this from everyone. Not so successfully, for so long.

“Then again, seeing his work finished improperly just might make him slip up,” Nathan muttered to himself. He leaned back, thinking about the fact that Jack Carter might actually be a genius in hiding. The idea didn’t sit well with him, and not just because it tore apart his last defense against the other man.

“Dr. Stark?” Fargo said, offering him a file. “The information you requested?”

Nathan took it, opening it and looking for a photograph. He finally found one, old, small, full length, and not very clear, but he’d spent far too much time looking at Jack’s face not to recognize the jaw line and even a little of the lean body. “Damn,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes. Jack Carter was Jacob Kessler, who was definitely smart enough for Nathan to be obsessed with. Not that Jack’s IQ had done anything other than give him a convenient excuse not to ask the other man out. But it also meant the other man had been lying to him.

“Hey, Stark, you summoned me?” Jack’s sarcastic greeting interrupted his reverie, and Nathan gestured to a seat wordlessly. “Okay, something wrong?” Jack asked, growing solemn as Nathan sealed the door and blacked the windows. He disabled the camera with a third command, before sitting back to take a moment to mentally compare the photo and the man in front of him.

“What’s your name?” Nathan asked, watching Jack carefully.

“Did you hit your head or something?” Jack asked, but Nathan spotted the little wrinkles of alarm. “You know my name. Though you usually just call me Sheriff. Occasionally I get a barked ‘Carter’ like I’m an idiot. But you never call me Jack.”

Clever, Nathan mused, noting the indirect truths. “I was wondering if you would actually lie to me, straight to my face when I asked you a direct question,” Nathan replied, keeping his voice very calm, just curious. “You must have, at some point, I just can’t figure out when. Maybe thousands of times.” Jack had gone very still, looking warily at Nathan. “What’s your name?”

Jack sighed, sitting forward and looking at Nathan. “I never tell a direct lie if I can avoid it,” he said softly. “I’ve lied to you directly four times. And if I answer your question, there’s a chance witness protection will remove me from this town.”

“Nothing leaves this room,” Nathan replied, clicking a key, pulling up the videos side by side, letting them play. Jack raised an eyebrow, shrugging.

“So he used the same phrase,” Jack replied. “That’s not me.”

“No, it’s real time CGI, also known as digital puppetry, isn’t it?” Nathan replied, pushing the sample bag with the silver sticker inside at him. “And if you need one more,” he clicked the control for the screen, pulling up the signatures.

Jack folded his arms, looking at Nathan stubbornly. “Why do you care?”

Nathan stood, coming around the desk. “I need to know. I… I don’t like that you’ve had to lie to me.”

“Why?” Jack countered again, standing up, trying to put himself on equal footing. “I don’t want to have to leave Eureka, Nathan, and you’re not giving me a good reason to answer you, even if I want—”

Nathan had been watching Jack’s lips move, and before he completely processed his actions, his hands were on Jack’s waist, pulling him in closer so their hips were flush, the gesture unmistakably sexual. “What is your name?” Nathan asked again, letting his hands slide around Jack’s waist, holding him tightly.

“Nathan,” Jack gasped, his hands coming up to rest on the scientist’s chest, but the fingers were curling into his shirt, not pushing him away, so Nathan tightened his grip.

“No, that’s my name,” Nathan replied, a little teasingly. “I want to know who I’m about to kiss.”

Jack leaned in, bringing his lips up to Nathan’s ear. “My name is Jacob Kessler. I have a PhD from Oxford.” His voice had regained his British accent. “I saw a scientist kill four people to hide bad research and protect an organization within the US government, so I was put into government protection.”

“As a US Marshall?” Nathan asked, curious as to how that happened.

“I used to be with the DoD, had the right training, and no place was safer,” Jack shrugged, looking up at Nathan nervously. “Do you still want to kiss me?”

“Yes,” Nathan said simply, tightening his grip a little.

“I’ve lied to you,” Jack reminded him, biting his lower lip.

“And you knew exactly how many times you did,” Nathan observed. “You’ll make it up to me.”

“Yes,” Jack agreed breathlessly, just before Nathan brought his lips down to Jack’s. Jack slid his hands behind Nathan’s neck, and Nathan groaned, letting Jack deepen the kiss.

“This isn’t just because I’m smart, is it?” Jack asked, breaking away from Nathan, looking suspicious.

“I’ve been trying to deny this since I met you,” Nathan replied, nipping at Jack’s lower lip. “Smart’s just icing on the cake.”

“And my black hole experiment?” Jack asked, looking hopeful. “You going to run it again, properly this time?”

“If you’ll help me with it in the privacy of my home,” Nathan agreed, smiling wickedly. “When I’m not occupying you with other… pursuits,” he ended his insinuation with a nip at Jack’s earlobe, enjoying the feel of the other man shuddering against him.

“Maybe you should take me home now, and we can get started on some of that,” Jack remarked, and Nathan shook his head, pulling away a little.

“You can meet me there for dinner tonight,” Nathan informed him, turning the discussion serious for a moment. “I may have been crazy about you for a while, but I don’t know you, not really,” he observed, stroking Jack’s face gently. “So we need to take our time on this, Jack… Jacob…” Nathan trailed off, looking perplexed.

“You can use it when we’re alone,” Jack conceded, chuckling. “All right, dinner, talking, slow…” he turned his last word into a soft, exploring kiss.

“Maybe it is because you’re smart,” Nathan murmured teasingly when they finally broke apart. “You didn’t used to be so tempting.”

“Oh, shut up,” Jack growled before tugging Nathan back into the kiss.


End file.
